Why women welcome Mobutu's demise

By Chris McGreal, Guardian News, 2 June 1997

[This article has been excerpted.]

A Zairean husband can abandon his wife and marry another,
can take a wife's property, can refuse to support his
children, and can have sex with 13-year olds -- all thanks
to a Mobutu-era decree. It's no wonder that women in
particular welcome the rebels, reports CHRIS MCGREAL

(Guardian News): DESPITE the arrival of the new order in
Lubumbashi, few residents have considered what it is they
expect from the rebel government beyond disposing of a
despised regime. There is loose talk of democracy and
freedom, with little concept of how they might work.

But one women's association knows exactly what it wants: the
abolition of Zaire's "family code" which legalised polygamy,
relieved husbands of responsibility for the maintenance of
wives and children, and lowered the sexual age of consent to
13 years old.

President Mobutu Sese Seko imposed the revised family law 10
years ago. Some women describe it as the greatest blow to
their status in modern times, adding to the considerable
insecurities of life in Zaire. Mafiki Yav Marie's life was
almost wrecked by the code. "We lost our dignity. We lost
our status in society. The code says we have no rights as
women or wives and our husbands can do anything with us,
even take our property, or just abandon us and take up with
other wives. We want our dignity back," she said. Ms Mafiki
was married with 10 children when her husband took advantage
of the revised family code to take a second wife. That was a
big enough blow. ...after a while he stopped supporting Ms
Mafiki and their children. Then he wanted all her property,
including the house she had bought after he abandoned her.

The law was on his side. The 1987 code gave a husband the
right to claim his wife's property even if they were not
living together. Ms Mafiki was being thrown out on the
street. "I went to court. It took years and years because he
tried to say I didn't have any right to live in the house I
had bought, or any right to the things I owned when I got
married. Under the family code even his children from his
other wife can come and claim my property when my husband
dies. I won the case because he gave up. But...I could have
been made homeless," she said. While husbands who take more
than one wife do not necessarily abandon their first spouse,
they are often unable to provide properly for more than one
family. ...for many women the most shocking aspect of the
family code was the lowering of the age of consent.

It outraged many groups including Lubumbashi's Association
of Christian Women. Bulakali Marie Immaculee is a member.
"In Europe you talk of paedophiles but here paedophilia is
legal. What else can you call it when men can take
13-year-old girls?" she said.

The collapse of Zaire's economy has forced children on to
the streets, to live or beg for food. Some are abandoned by
parents no longer able to provide for them. Others run away
of their own accord. While boys account for most of those
living in Lubumbashi's streets, girls are the most
vulnerable. "Some will do whatever is necessary to surive,"
Ms Bulakali said. "There are rich men in town who offer
girls money and somewhere to sleep. They like very young
girls. Some believe that if they take a vigin then they
inherit her youth. Everyone knows who these men are, but
there's nothing we can do. If you go to the prosecutors,
they point to the law and say there's nothing illegal." The
collapse of Zaire's economy...also added to the burden of
providing for families. Ms Bulakali - who works for a
railway company which has not paid her in four months - says
her Christian group has asked some members to leave because
of what they have resorted to in order to survive.

"Some are obliged to leave the association because they
became prostitutes. We cannot condone it, but they ask: how
else can we survive? How else can we look after our
children?" she said.